Ive been trying to local (whistle) sheet music for the “Little Drummer Boy”. Ive had no luck after 30 minutes-can anyone help?
thanks
I’ve found dozens of sites where you have to pay $2-5 for it. Are you prepared to pay? It may not be whistle specific…
as near as I can tell, this tune is under copyright still.
Originally named The Carol of the Drum, it was copyrighted in Oct 1959. That gave it copyright protection for 28 years (according to the US law at the time) with a chance of renewal for another 28 years.
It looks like it was renewed in '87 (28 years later), so it’ll be at least 2015 before this is public domain. It may be as long as 2035, since some copyrighted works in this time frame were extended another 20 years by special legislation.
This is probably why you can’t find it for free on the net.
On the upside, it’s an extremely simple tune that is easy to pick up by ear. I don’t know how to write out ABC notation, but if you play these notes, you’ll have it (uppercase letters = notes in the bottom octave).
D, E, F#, F#
F#, G, F#, G, F#
D, D, E, F#, F#, F#
F#, G, F#, G, F#
E, F#, G, A, A, A
B, A, G, F#, E
E, F#, G, A, A, A
B, Cnat, B, A, G
B, A, G, F#
A, G, F#, E
D, E, F#, F#t, F#
F#, G, F#, G, F#
E, D, E, D
Redwolf
P.S. If you’re able to read .mus files, I can write it out in notation for you…just don’t tell anyone at the copyright office!
Redwolf
that’s great Redwolf. But you should replace all the Fnat’s by F#.
You’re right…I had a brain cramp!
OK…all fixed!
I do have this written out in Finale Notepad, if anyone wants a copy of the sheetmusic.
Redwolf
The sheet music for “Little Drummer Boy” can be found at:
http://www.tinwhistler.com/music/songtype.asp?songtype=15
Along with some other Christmas and Religious tunes.
Actually, it’s not there any more. I pulled the files the other day when I found it was still under copyright. I will update the database today to take it off the list completely. If you try to go to the sheet music, you’ll get a 404 file not found.
I would have updated the list sooner, but last night was the last night of our local session before the inn that was housing it closed, so I was up late helping rock the house.